Baryons are made from three fundamental, subatomic particles called quarks, bound together by a strong force. The more familiar protons and neutrons are also baryons -- these combine with electrons to make up everything on the periodic table. “The building blocks of all known things, including cars, planets, stars and people, are quarks and electrons, which are tied together by strong, electromagnetic forces,” Steven Blusk of Syracuse University explains in a news release. And the quarks in these newly discovered baryons aren’t even the same type: Each of the new particles contains one beauty (b), one strange (s), and one down (d) quark. The new particles are more than six times as massive as a proton, thanks to their heavyweight b quarks and their angular momentum -- a particular attribute of quarks known as “spin.” In the Xi_b- state, the spins of the two lighter quarks point in the opposite direction to the b quark, and in the Xi_b*- state, the spins are aligned. This difference in configuration makes Xi_b*- a little heavier. news.syr.edu/physicist-helps-discover-subatomic-particles-24111/
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 01:13:34 +0000
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